What Makes World Wide Technology Successful?

Federal Fiscal Year fun is in full force… I was invited to play in this week’s “In it to Win it!” contest. I had some early success with Kleenex but was ultimately knocked out by some formidable competition from our inside sales team.

I’ve had several conversations in the past month about what makes World Wide Technology successful. My answer has been pretty consistent throughout my 14 years at WWT – providing outstanding customer service. On the front lines of that effort is our inside sales team. That’s why it’s fantastic to have some fun during federal busy season with the “crown jewels” of our organization.

I know I’m going to get in some trouble for that last comment since I’ve left out the rest of our talented team members in logistics, HR, professional services, finance, quality, sales, business development and IT. All of these departments are the supporting cast for our inside sales team and they wouldn’t be able to do what they do so well without their support and dedication.

Right after “In it to Win it!” I had a planning meeting with our CEO Jim Kavanaugh about our 20 year anniversary. I won’t let the cat out of the bag, but it’s all about recognizing and thanking our employees for 20 years of success. (WWTers, you may want to mark Friday, September 10th on your calendar; more on that next week!)

Fiscal year end fun and celebrating our 20 year anniversary reflects the underlying elements of WWT’s success that will now replace my historical answer of “great customer service.” Make no mistake, we will still continue to have a relentless focus on customer service, which is ultimately what our customers and partners most visibly see and feel. However, what really drives great service is the underlying culture that’s been ingrained throughout our organization.

Just after my meeting with Jim, I was driving home and heard an interview on NPR’s Marketplace with Zappos’ CEO, Tony Hsieh, who said:

“For us our number one priority as a company is company culture, and our whole belief is that if we get the culture right then most of the other stuff like delivering great customer service or building a long-term enduring brand will just happen naturally on its own.” via Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh on Marketplace From American Public Media.

I couldn’t agree more and like Tony, Jim’s leadership and focus has been targeted at getting the culture of our company right. But lots of companies highlight their company culture as a differentiator.

So what really makes WWT successful?

Two things: Company Culture and Execution. I’ve written about the importance of execution in a couple of previous posts:

Let’s face it, having a great company culture is important, but without execution it doesn’t stand a chance and will not have long term success. That’s why WWT’s mission is two-fold and reflects the key ingredients of execution and culture:

“A profitable growth company that is a great place to work.”

So, hats off and a big thank you to our inside sales team and the entire supporting cast at World Wide for embodying a great company culture and “doing whatever it takes” to drive WWT’s long-term success.